D2 season 64 Topic

What this season is proving is that, while Longwood might be one of the best defensive teams in DII, we can't reasonably find any consistent scoring, which means that we'll be in every game, but won't be beating many of the best teams. We're still young (with only 2 Srs. and 2 Jrs.) and our sophmore class will be getting much, much better - so I like our team to be very strong again in the future (or hopefully by the end of this season)

And like I said before, Belmont Abbey is extremely good this season..

while Harding is little longer in the tooth than Longwood, ditto. Scoring is an issue, but we can shut just about anybody down.

Belmont Abbey, Slippery Rock, Hillsdale, and Wisconsin Parkside look like the 4 toughest teams out there right now. Wayne St. is also very good. With non-conference over, who are your final four favorites?

Posted by hackerhog on 4/26/2013 8:37:00 PM (view original):I currently rank 6th in D2 Iba with 48 NT wins, but my record with mduncanhogs is beginning to rival davefilby's record with greenhawks. I'm 2-10 against him. Gunning for 3rd win tonight.

Washburn: There are four very good conferences in D-II Iba. The Mid-America Conference is currently 5th. There are only 4 human teams in the conference, with Washburn by itself with 5 Sims in the West. There are 3 NT-quality teams here and Washburn has losses to the other two. Their best non-con win was a ten point win over Felician (RPI 52). Non-con losses include margins of 16 to West Georgia (RPI 7), 29 to Hillsdale (RPI 5), and a 92-39 loss to Belmont Abbey. There are some bad sims in the Mid-America conference.

Bellarmine: They are currently #2 with the one bad loss to Concord (RPI 23). They couldn't do anything right that game, but have a pair of notable 6 point wins over top 20 RPI teams Incarnate Word and U of Indianapolis. Indy gets their rematch, plus a matchup against Wisconsin, Parkside looms on the schedule. Greenhawks team hangs it hat on defense and athleticism and are a threat to beat anybody with their pressing style. Concord and the prior Indy game were the only times this season they've met their match in those areas. The two remaining tough games will tell us more about Bellarmine.

CSU, Chico: The twelve upperclassmen of CSU, Chico surprisingly suffered through a 6-4 non-con with losses to Belmont Abbey, Fairmont State, U of the Sciences, and West Georgia. All 4 teams are top 25 RPI squads (2 are exceptional) so no shame in that. They did close non-con with a nice victory over U of Indy, which appears to have set the tone for conference play. Wins over San Francisco St, Grand Canyon, and a split with CSU, Stanislaus have been the notable games in conference play. It remains to be seen if Chico is the Man and carries over strong conference play into the post-season.

Incarnate Word: Where to begin with this team. 6-1 versus Top 25 teams. 8-6 versus everybody else. Wins over Longwood, U of Indy, and St Mary's (TX). Lost to a 7-16 Erskine team. Is there any better example (except for maybe greenhawks loss) why people grow to hate the press? Buddy Schoen has stepped up his game in conference play after begging his coach to shoot more. And yes I did this post just to write about how much we've improved in conference play. I actually like us now, but the next 4 games are against NT teams.

Belmont Abbey: Absolutely killing people with their defense. #1 ranking, #1 RPI, SOS 20 and still holding opponents to 39.9% from the floor?!?! Ridiculous. Wins over CSU, Chico, Wayne State, Lander, and St Edwards in non-con. An undefeated run through conference with a really good win over Pfeiffer. Longwood looms, but a 12-0 start in the toughest conference is worthy of respect. Bow down to the NT favorite, bow down.

My St. Mary's TX team was way overrated coming out of non-conference play. We (like Longwood) lack enough top scorers to be elite. Lonnie Cook is perhaps the best player in D2 Iba this season, but his talent is being wasted on a team that lacks any other top scoring threats (although some of my young guys are getting closer). After a rough 1-3 stretch in the middle of conference play we made a lineup change and have since turned things around a bit, rolling off 5 straight wins by an average of 12.6 points (2 close wins and 3 bigger ones). Our final 3 conference games are on the road, but if we can win them all we should get a 2-4 seed in the NT depending on how we do in the CT. All-in-all, we have a good, but not great, team.

Don't overlook N. Alabama from the Heartland. They beat Incarnate Word on the road and are playing some good defense. The N. Alabama-IW game tonight will likely determine who wins the Heartland's West division.

Well here we are again. the end of the regular season. My team at northeastern St. has finally come around and we look like a good tourney team. The improvement of guys now provides the depth I was hoping to see. So how about the rest of you guys? Are things going as planned?

bbunch I'm was hoping to see another end of season write up. If you don't get to it I understand they are a lot of work. but from this end very much appreciated and interesting.